Topic
Awards season is coming up and it made me think of
previous France Football’s Ballon d’Or Winners.
Some winners were easy to predict and undisputed,
while naturally over the years there were some winners that were controversial
and/or deemed unworthy.
As an example Hristo Stoichkov was groomed to be the
1992 winner only to lose to Marco van Basten after the Dutchman scored 4 goals
vs. IFK Gothenburg in the Champions League just weeks before the award.
The Liberian George Weah in 1995 is another example,
while no one questioned his talent, most questioned his election after only 7
League goals for PSG. Again, most observed that his last few months in the
Serie A with AC Milan tipped the balance.
Can You
think of other cases? Maybe cases that you personally disagreed with?
 |
Photo From: France Football, May 3, 1983
(Juventus’ Paolo Rossi, winner in 1982) |
 |
Photo From: European Football Yearbook 1988
(AC
Milan’s Ruud Gullit, winner in 1987) |
Interesting topic. Igor Belanov's golden ball (1986) was very disputed, at least in Italy. He reportedly played an amazing match against France in october (you posted the magazines report in one of your older post) and this seems to have influenced some voters. I would have voted Butragueno that year, or Lineker.
ReplyDeleteGullit's award (1987) came a bit early, but his overall career later proved he deserved it. Rossi (1982) dominated the world cup but basically played at world class level for 5-6 matches in that year (I seem to remember only a fine champions' cup game vs. Standard Liege).
Van Basten... well, a player like him deserved at least 3 "ballon"s! Hristo won in 1994, in a year where he was not as brilliant.
What are the EUROPEAN players that, in your opinion, deserved a Ballon and never won? The firsts that come to mind: Lineker, Maldini, Zoff, Iniesta.. maybe also Banks... what if Italy won in '90, or England? We most surely would have Schillaci or Gascoigne in the list.
Also, in retrospect and for his overall career, Buffon deserved more than Cannavaro in '06.
Interesting thing about belanov is that he did not even win the soviet player of the year , Zavarov won it that year. I would have voted for lineker, you have to remember there was a lot of media hype about lobanovsky's dinamo Kiev playing the football of year 2000 and belanov had a good world cup
ReplyDeleteInteresting thing about belanov is that he did not even win the soviet player of the year , Zavarov won it that year. I would have voted for lineker, you have to remember there was a lot of media hype about lobanovsky's dinamo Kiev playing the football of year 2000 and belanov had a good world cup
ReplyDeleteZidane is an interesting case , he won in 1998 after scoring two goals in the wc final even though he had an overall unsatisfactory tournament, he probably deserved it more in 2000 but lost to Figo after the two sending offs in the champions league in the fall
ReplyDeleteRaul probably deserved one somewhere along the way as did Maldini and baresi
ReplyDeleteCantona claimed that if france had qualified for 1994 wc, he would have won the 1993 award
ReplyDeleteOf messi's 4 awards, I was very surprised for the 2010 award because he did not have a good world cup, for Xavi or iniesta not to win after winning the World Cup was a surprise to me
ReplyDeleteYes, Raul should appear in the honour roll. And Iniesta of course. Cantona.. well, he never won european silverware (did he?) and didn't play a good tournament with France. Zidane deserved at least 2 'ballons', he dominated the game, as Ronaldo did, in the decade 97-2006.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting thing is in 1996 when sammer won, Ronaldo had actually received more first place votes, but sammer had more points in total
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember that in 1966 bobby charlton won with a single point over eusebio
ReplyDeleteSavicevic also claimed that he deserved the 1991 award because papin had only won the French league whereas he had won the champions cup
ReplyDeleteThere was some controversy when cannavaro won because he was defender, which is strange because the same people also for years claimed that defensive players were unjustly overlooked
ReplyDeleteI may be wrong about this but I think Platini in 1984 was the most undisputed winner, he received 128 out of total 130 points
ReplyDeletele beau Paolo Rossi
ReplyDeletehttp://www.horreursmusicales.fr/
ronaldo, this year...
ReplyDeleteThe hat trick vs Sweden might do the trick, though beckenbauer and rummenigge have been extensively lobbying for ribery
ReplyDelete